mrcromie

Recipes 

I used a vial of WLP051 pitched directly (with no starter) into an all grain IPA OG 1.058 and it took exactly 50 hours to show any sings of life. It's bubblin' away now but I was sure worried for a few days. I'm very thankful to all the posts about slow starts and the advice to not get worried. I've been brewing for 3+ years and never had such a slow start.

Petho

Recipes 

This is typical for WLP yeast. This is why I switched to dry yeast, no starters and no lag.

statseeker

Recipes 

I would say tentative +1 to the above statement. Although, there are many special circumstances where liquid yeast is needed to impart certain characteristics.

mrcromie

Recipes 

I've been using Nottingham ale yeast almost exclusively for the past 6 months (about 10 batches) with no problems. Always quick to start and tears my typical ale worts apart in a day or so, whether I use 1 or 2 packets, re-hydrated or not. I'm branching out using this WLP051 since the new Surf Brewery just opened here in town and they had it in stock in their homebrew shop. I certainly learned my lesson and will always make starters with liquid yeast from now on - just to save the stress of that initial 50 hours of watching and waiting.

All that being said, I'll probably pitch my next batch right on top of this yeast cake to get my money out of it.